Post your pics as MetaChat's sidebar art! As discussed earlier, I'd like to try letting a few of our resident photogs and artists "curate" the sidebar art, in addition to our usual "shuffle" style of posting new images. This is open to absolutely everyone here, so if you think you'd be interested check out the details and sign up in this thread.→[More:]

If this becomes an ongoing thing (and I hope it will), I'll try to set up a page on the wiki for it. But for now, here's what you need to know:

The sidebar art changes every 4-6 weeks, so that's how long your pics will stay up. You can post anything: a mix of images you're proud of, some pics you make specifically for the occasion, a series of images on a theme, pure randomness- any of that is okay. We've always used photos, but if you have images in some other media you want to post, go for it (if they'll display well at the sizes we use).

Technical info: the sidebar images are GIFs. There's no set height limit, but the left sidebar is 140 pixels wide, and the right one is 150 pixels wide. You need bold, distinct images, because at that size, a landscape turns into a bunch of lines, and anything intricate will become a blob.

The right sidebar image is always non-square, so bear that in mind. On the left there are usually 3 to 5 pics, but there's no limit so if you have an idea that uses more or fewer, we can try that.

If you want me to format the images for the sidebars, I'll be glad to, and will work with you to make sure you like them. If you want to do it yourself, I'll give you a few specifics you'll need to make them display correctly. (You'll probably need to have access to Photoshop, since that's the only way I know how to format them.)

Because the images are so small, even cell phone pics can probably work. Don't feel like you need a fancy camera to participate! The more the merrier, seriously. I can't wait to see what y'all come up with. :)

Sign up in this thread if you're interested, and if you have any questions ask those here as well.